Chastity Layman 2

Chapter 82 Beimang Mountain

The camel caravan continued eastward along the Wei River, and 50 people were added to the back of the team.

These people are all more than six feet tall and in their early twenties, and they are rare to be selected from the group of crooked melons and cracked dates, and they are still young and strong.

It was early morning at this time, the morning dew on the grass beside the road had not yet dissipated, and the morning breeze was cool.This group of young people were all naked to the waist, only a pair of pleated trousers with wide openings, leggings with cloth strips on their calves, and a pair of straw sandals on their feet.

Every five people in a team trot forward with a log on their shoulders.

Qin Yong and other soldiers from Qin Lang's family were all riding horses, walking beside them with a leather whip in their hands, shouting loudly from time to time.

"Run, hurry up!"

"Pay attention to the rhythm!"

"Cooperate!"

A log weighs tens of catties, and it is not considered heavy for five people to carry, but the problem is that they have to run while carrying it, which involves endurance and tacit understanding. If the cooperation is not good, it will be more tiring than carrying it alone.

If he didn't pay attention, the whip hit his back, and the burning taste was absolutely unpleasant.

"Sanwu, who runs the slowest, has half his breakfast, and is responsible for digging latrines and cleaning horses when camping!"

Qin Yong flicked his whip hard, and with a bang, all those guys couldn't help shaking.

Wei Zheng looked at the book leisurely on the horse, "This method of practice is quite new. Instead of practicing golden drum orders, spears, swords and shields, but practicing carrying wood, tossing to death every day, these guys want to die every day. I want to be immortal."

Qin Lang was very satisfied with Qin Yong's practice, and even carrying the wood was his bad idea.

"Old Wei, of course the Golden Drum Orders must be practiced, but there is no rush. First of all, these people must be converted from thieves, otherwise, no matter how strong they are, it will be useless."

"That's true." After Wei Zheng finished speaking, he continued to read.

Qin Yong's method of training the Black Cloud Long Sword Team is very simple and brutal, that is, whipping them non-stop until they are completely subdued, crushing their rebelliousness and laziness when they were thieves, and then reinventing them. shape up.

Five people carrying wood and running together is not only training their physical fitness, but also cultivating their sense of community, especially emphasizing their cooperation.

What the army pays most attention to is the group, and what it pays attention to is the whole, not individual bravery.

The thieves just emphasize the individual, and rarely talk about the collective.

"Old Wei, on the way out of Chang'an, I don't think the weather is very good this year. You can see that the crops on the side of the road are not good."

Wei Zheng put away his books, turned his head to look at the fields on both sides, and sighed, "Frost and drought are disasters, rice is expensive, Turks invade, prefectures and counties are in turmoil, people are hungry and famine, running here and there, complaining. Those who sell their sons and daughters when there is famine."

It was the first time Qin Lang heard this, and he was surprised, "Isn't it possible? Has it reached this point?"

Wei Zheng sneered, "You son of Prince Qin Sanlang, a dude in Beijing, naturally you don't know how the world is going. Since the Sui Dynasty, the world has been in chaos. It has been fighting for more than ten years, and all places have been smashed to the ground."

"But isn't my Great Tang already unified the world?"

"Unify the world? It took four years of Wude to put down Wang Shichong of Luoyang, but then there were two rebellions by Liu Heita in Hebei, and Xu Yuanlang in Shandong and others surrendered and rebelled. How can the people have a good day if they are invaded by the plug?"

"Last year in the eighth year of Wude, the Turks invaded on a large scale. Many places in Hedong, Hebei, Hetao, and Hexi were in emergency. Countless people and livestock were taken captive. Many armies were defeated. Yu Sheshe sent troops to besiege Wucheng again, this side has never been peaceful."

"Until now, Master Liang of Shuofang is still in control of one side!"

Qin Lang was also quite upset when he heard this, he didn't feel this when he was in Chang'an before.

But now I left Chang'an and traveled all the way east, and found that the farther away from Chang'an, the more depressed the two sides of the road were, especially the poor crop growth.

Natural disasters.

There have been many military disasters, but natural disasters have continued.

"This year is another year of catastrophe. After the catastrophe, there will be a catastrophe. I'm afraid that the food price will rise again this year. I don't know how many people will sell their children and daughters and be displaced." Wei Zheng sighed.

Now a piece of silk is no more than Yidou rice, and the price of rice has reached more than 200 yuan, which is more than ten times the price of rice in Chang'an during the reign of the Kaihuang.

Qin Lang said solemnly, "Now that the prince is in charge, with the prince's benevolence and the assistance of Fang Du and others, I believe that the court will soon be relieved, and everyone's life will be better and better."

Wei Zheng was not so optimistic.

"The change of the crown prince's uterus will only make the world worse. Now that the Turkic and foreign aggression is still uncertain, and it has caused local instability, how can things get better and better? If there are internal turmoil, I'm afraid it will be even more chaotic."

"So this time we go to Hebei, we must succeed. The world cannot stand any more troubles." Qin Lang said.

The world is not safe, so the government soldiers often have to put down their hoes and pick up their swords to fight, which delays the production of the family's farming season. When a government soldier goes out to fight, it often takes five or ten strong men to transport food, grass and luggage, and more people delay the farming season. Production.

But the war needs more food and supplies, and the people have to bear a heavier burden than usual.Coupled with natural disasters, floods, droughts and locust plagues, as well as Turkic invasions from time to time outside the Great Wall, the people were hungry and hungry, and some people simply threw themselves into the mountains, forests and grasslands to become bandits and robbers.

Bandits and bandits are rampant, and the people suffer even more, thus creating a vicious circle.

The group of Shayuan thieves defeated by Qin Lang, apart from a few rogues fleeing for their lives, were mostly bankrupt commoners, fugitive slaves, starving people, etc., who just wanted to survive.

Even people like Wei Zheng feel a little desperate about the current situation, not knowing what to do.

"I think that to fight against the outside world, we must first settle down and go through the transfer of power in the center smoothly, and then we can unite the power of the whole country to fight against the Turks and force the Turks to stop invading. Only in this way can we fully recuperate and calm the world." Qin Lang said .

"Easier said than done?" Wei Zheng shook his head. The Tang Dynasty raised troops in Taiyuan, and it has been nine years since then. It has been a journey of swords and swords, defeating one anti-king after another, and pacifying one county after another. In general, life seems to be a little bit faster than before. However, Li Shimin's Xuanwu soldiers made the world situation that was gradually stable become turbulent again.

The authority of the central government and the deterrence of the emperor that Datang finally established are losing little by little.

Who is to blame for all this?

Of course it was Li Shimin's fault.

However, Qin Lang felt that this kind of matter couldn't be further investigated. After all, it had already happened, and what he had to consider now was how to change the current predicament.

Wei Zheng judged that the situation this year would take a turn for the worse. Regardless of whether Li Yuan Wang Junkuo of Youzhou and Li Yi of Jingzhou would rebel or not, the frost and drought in many places this year would greatly reduce the grain production in the Guandong and Guandong this year, and famine would inevitably break out this year.And it is impossible for the Turks to let go of this opportunity to take advantage of the fire. If the Turks come again, the whole north will be in chaos.

At that time, border troubles and famines will occur everywhere, which will inevitably lead to refugees and bandits.

Years of wars have resulted in empty warehouses both in the central government and in local prefectures and counties, and the people have no food in store.

In the weeds by the roadside, a dead body is half exposed.

The wind and rain made this skeleton already mutilated and incomplete, but if you look carefully, you can still tell that this dead skeleton has definitely not been more than ten years old.

Maybe this is a soldier who fell in the Central Plains War in the four years of Wude, or maybe it is a starving common people.

But until now, they have not even been buried, and the bones are exposed in the wild like this.

Qin Lang jumped off the horse, looked at the withered bones for a long time, and finally bowed.

"Dig a hole and put this dead bone in the ground for peace."

Qin Yong shook his head and persuaded, "After leaving Chang'an, there are dead bones like this everywhere on the road, and they can't be buried. The local state and county officials can't control them, we just pass by."

"There are so many unburied bones?"

"Many, Henan, Hebei, and other frontier fortresses such as Hetao, there are dead bones everywhere. In some places, there are even no rooster crowing for a hundred miles, and everything is barren."

Since the end of the Sui Dynasty, more than ten years of repeated fierce battles have made the once prosperous Central Plains area, and even today, many places are still like no man's land.

After the Great War in the Central Plains, although the days are getting better day by day, the time is too short, and it still hasn't recovered.

Datang defeated Wang Shichong in Kanto, defeated Dou Jiande, and defeated Liu Heitai, Xu Yuanlang, Gao Kaidao and other anti-kings one after another. .

The land was equalized in the Tang Dynasty, the household registration was cleared, and the people and orphans were comforted, but the Central Plains, which had been tortured and crippled, still hadn't recovered.

Qin Lang ignored Qin Yong's advice, and whenever he saw corpses lying in the open by the side of the road, he would surely collect the bones, let them rest in the ground, and erect an unnamed monument.

Qin Lang asked Wei Zheng to register the number of these unknown people.

The farther east he went, the more bones were collected. In Wei Zheng's book, there were more than 3000 unknown bones.

Out of Tongguan, into Luoyang.

Qin Lang climbed Beiman Mountain and came to pay respects at the graves of Luo Shixin, Pei Xingyan, and Pei Renji. They were all Qin Qiong's brothers, and in the troubled times, they had already gone to Huangquan to recruit old troops.

Pour a glass of Guogong wine and light three sticks of incense.

"Uncle Luo, the world is getting better and better. One day, the Tang Dynasty will create a prosperous age, and that prosperous age will definitely come true as you wish!"

The birds soared into the sky.

A group of people came around.

It was a group of hungry people, including old and weak, women and children, and some even held babies.

Some of them held mulberry forks, some held dog-beating sticks, and surrounded them with green eyes, staring at the pig's head and roast chicken that Qin Lang offered in front of Luo Shixin's grave.

Qin Yong raised the Coiling Dragon Stick.

Fifty Heiyun Longsword players who had already practiced with some appearance pulled out their horizontal knives one after another.

But the group of hungry people on the opposite side did not retreat, they still stood there refusing to leave.

Qin Lang waved his hand.

"Put away your weapons, these are just hungry people."

"Sanlang be careful, you can do anything when you are hungry!" Qin Yong followed Qin Qiong to suppress bandits in Henan, and most of them were refugees who rebelled because of hunger.

Qin Lang shook his head.

"It shouldn't be a crime to rob food because of hunger!"

(End of this chapter)